Disclaimer: Sorry, no ownership here!
A/N: So, Heal the Healers is now on hiatus (see A/N to be shortly posted there) and I had this great idea come to me at work last night. This is the New Greenie thing. I have the whole thing planned out, sort of. But I'm going to do each one as a color, and not as a one-shot because it would be very, very, wrong. I'll probably have another chapter ready tomorrow. So, here it is...It's Not Easy Being Green...Tommy Oliver.
Tommy Oliver had had many different days in his life; there were the good days and bad days, the depressing days and the wonderful days and even the occasional 'what the hell was I thinking?' days. Today, however, was a 'have I gone insane?' kind of day. It was a week after one of the most wonderful days of his life, the day that Jason had offered his hand in friendship and the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers had become his team.
The day had started, normally enough, with him running late, he made first class by a second, and it wasn't until he'd actually sat down that he realized that there was a problem. While he was wearing his typical outfit, with a green shirt around his waist incase he needed it, that wasn't the only green he was wearing. His hands, and as a glimpse in a reflective piece of glass proved, his face were a bright, emerald green, nearly the same shade as his Ranger uniform.
"Mr. Oliver," Mrs. Applebee said, "would you care to explain?"
Not really, Tommy thought, "Um, I don't have an explanation, Mrs. Applebee. To be honest, I hadn't noticed before I got here even."
"Yes, well," Mrs. Applebee replied, "take the pass and go see if you can wash off in the restroom, Mr. Oliver. Hurry up, please."
"Yes, Mrs. Applebee," Tommy replied, he took the pass and hurried out of the classroom as laughter followed him.
Glancing around, Tommy hurried to the nearest bathroom, and started to scrub his hands. As the soap and water was rubbed into his hands, Tommy stared in horror as his hands went from being green, to being a bright, fire engine red. He looked into the mirror and saw the same color covering his face as well, creeping up from his collar like a living thing. "Tommy?"
Tommy spun, and found Jason and Zack standing behind him. Zack had a hand over his mouth, from the way his shoulders moved, he was laughing. Jason looked concerned, but Tommy suspected that he also found it funny, "Hey, Jason," he said, giving a little wave.
"Are you ok?" Jason asked.
"I feel fine," Tommy replied, "I just, I'm apparently changing colors. Is this a side effect from… you know?"
Zack's laughter was becoming audible, and Tommy sighed, "I honestly don't know," Jason said. "We could ask Zordon."
"Should we? I don't want to bother him," Tommy said, he still wasn't comfortable with the ageless, bodiless wizard that he'd attempted to send into the ether while evil.
"It's better to ask," Jason said. "Dry off and we'll go to the janitor's closet. It's one of the best hiding spots for stuff like this."
Tommy grabbed some towels, dried his hands and followed Jason out of the bathroom while Zack followed behind, snorting into his hand. The trio slipped into the janitor's closet next to the bathroom and Jason lifted his communicator to contact Zordon. Before he could press the button, it beeped. "Zordon, this is Jason," Jason said, looking at the other two. For a moment, all three had the same thoughts, what now, was it Rita?
"Rangers," Zordon said, "I am sure that you have noticed Tommy's predicament. Do not be alarmed, it is something that I had anticipated, although not as swiftly as this. Come to the Command Center after school and I shall explain."
Before any of them could speak, the link closed with a beep. "Well, that was helpful," Tommy said, looking at his hands, "how do I explain this," he raised them up.
"You got me," Jason said.
Zack shrugged, "If nothing else, one of us can morph and explain that it's a monster attack or something."
"That will be a very last resort," Jason said, "like if they were going to expel Tommy."
"I guess I should get back to class then," Tommy said. He reached for the door handle and stopped, "I left the pass in the bathroom, see you guys later." The trio slipped back out of the closet and Tommy hurried into the bathroom and back out, pass in hand. As he turned to look at Jason and Zack, Zack broke down laughing loudly. Now, even Jason was smiling. "What?" Tommy demanded. He looked at his hands, where were now purple. "How? But I didn't wash my hands!"
Zack hit the floor, clutching his stomach as Jason's smile grew wider, although he was clearly trying to hide it, "Get to class, Tommy."
"But, Jason," Tommy said, and froze, because that was a whine and he, Tommy Oliver, did not whine. He had stopped whining over everything after…Tommy stopped himself, "Whatever," he offered instead, turning and heading back to his class.
When he stepped inside the whole class turned to look at him, "Mr. Oliver?" Mrs. Applebee said.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Tommy said, "I think it reacted to the soap. I did try, though."
"Very well," Mrs. Applebee replied, hiding a smile as the class snickered.
Tommy squared his shoulders as brief memory flashes of other classes flitted in the back of his mind. He took his seat and made no effort to hide his face. The best way to act was to act as if nothing was wrong. It had worked before, after all.
After last period, Tommy dropped by the bathroom, as he came out, he ran into Kim and Trini, "Hi Trini, Kim," he said, feeling a bubble of nervousness at the sight of Kim.
"Hi Tommy," Trini said, while Kim blushed. "Hey, your skin's doing that color changing thing again."
Tommy glanced down in time to see the last of the purple on his hands darken to a pure black that, like the other colors, was not a natural skin tone. "Great," Tommy said, "I look like I fell in a vat of black paint."
"Trying to steal my color, eh?" Zack said, making Tommy jump.
"Stop it," Trini said, "it's not Tommy's fault."
Jason and Billy joined them as the four headed for their lockers, "We'll leave from the Juice Bar," Jason said softly, "we can put our stuff in the lockers there and still get them after." Everyone nodded and they headed out.
After escaping Ernie's cheerful queries from the bar, the six teens teleported to the Command Center; waiting for them was not just Zordon and Alpha, but three other people. "Tallen, what are you doing here?" Jason asked, startled.
One of the three, who, Tommy noted wore a red shirt while the other two wore green, rolled his eyes, "I pulled short straw," he said with a shrug.
"Hi Zordon," Trini said.
"Hello, Rangers," Zordon replied, "I would like you to meet Rangers from the AdonKerev System, as Jason already knows, this is Tallen of Kerevas, the Red Kerev Ranger and two of his teammates."
Tallen inclined his head, "This is Gedan and Ordan, Gedan is the Green Kerev Ranger and Ordan is the Green Adon Ranger."
Jason nodded, "This is Billy, our Blue Ranger, Trini, our Yellow, Kim, our Pink, Zack, our Black, and last, but not least, Tommy, our Green."
"We've come here…" one of the Green Rangers said.
"…To have words with Green Ranger Tommy…" the other one said.
"…If we may." They finished in unison.
Jason turned, "Well, Tommy?"
"Sure," Tommy said, "uh, just to say, I don't normally look like this; it's been a very weird day."
"That is why…" one green said.
"…we wanted to speak with you."
The pair walked closer and Tommy realized that it hadn't been just the similar clothes, but the pair was, in fact, identical. "You're twins, aren't you?" He said.
"Yes," they said in unison, "identical."
"Great," Tommy muttered, "follow me please, if you don't mind, I'd like to sit outside."
"That will be fine," one of them said.
The three greens waved at their teammates before heading out. As soon as the outer doors closed, however, the brothers seemed to relax, shrugging off their shirts to reveal green, short sleeved shirts with two different symbols on them. "Sorry about that," one of them said, cheerfully, "I'm Ordan, he's Gedan."
"Hi," Gedan said.
"Call me Tommy," Tommy replied.
"Oh, and here," Ordan held out a small bottle, "You might want to shower with that soap soon. It'll take off the other chemicals."
"What?" Tommy asked.
"It's a Green Ranger thing," Ordan replied, "all newbie Greens are subject to pranks. We put a chemical in your soap and then set up containers of powder through out the place of education so that the chemical would react and change colors. I believe you would say that it is a chameleon chemical because different reactants can make it change."
"So I've just been pranked, by aliens because I'm a green ranger?" Tommy asked.
"Oh yes," Ordan said, "and when there is a new green ranger on your team, you will have to prank him or her. It's tradition."
"So why did Jason's friend, Tallen, come along?"
"Tallen is the Senior Red of the AdonKerev System, it would make sense that he comes, considering that we have a reputation in certain circles," Ordan shrugged, "I'm not sure why though, we never actually started anything."
"At least, nothing you couldn't finish," Gedan injected. "I'm the innocent one, Ordan's the crazy one. When we're just with Greenies, or with our teams, I'm the quiet one and Ordan's the troublemaker, when we're dealing with other teams, we put up a front. A lot of Rangers do it. It's to confuse our enemies, and given the prevailing trend towards Dark Magic in the past century or so, a Ranger could become an Enemy with no warning."
"Tell me about it," Tommy replied.
"Hey, nobody blames you," Ordan said, "we've all had things happen to us as Rangers that we are ashamed or even hurt by. A few years back, in fact, the Kerev Rangers had a run in with a black sorcerer who switched our genders, turned us evil and sent us after the Adon Rangers. We almost defeated them."
"There are few people who can truly understand what Rita Repulsa did to you," Gedan said, "but all Rangers know that it was Rita's spells and will that caused your dark days and no Ranger who is true to the Power will ever blame you."
Tommy had heard from his teammates many of the same words, but it was there, sitting in the harsh desert sun, skin tinted black and speaking to a pair of aliens that he truly felt as if he were healing from the spells of Rita Repulsa. And as the twins started to tell him stories of other pranks played by the troublesome greens, he found himself finally and truly ready to fight with the Power Rangers.
A/N: The ending changed from the original so let me explain what I couldn't there...AdonKerev is a system with two habitable planets, so they have two teams. Tallen is the overall leader of both teams, and personally leads the Kerev team. Ordan and Gedan are identical twins who serve as the green rangers one on each team. Also, it just seemed right to offer Tommy some more reassurance about the whole Rita thing. I mean, it's not like he could go to a shrink about all this without risking the Secret.